UK puts more powder into intervention

Published 19 January 16

The UK has used the EU intervention scheme for the first time since August 2015, adding 1,135 tonnes of SMP during the week beginning 4 January. This has doubled the UK’s contribution since product began to enter intervention in July 2015, taking its total to 2,183 tonnes.

Several other countries, including Belgium, Germany and France, have also increased their use of the scheme, with SMP wholesale prices hovering around the intervention price of €1,698/tonne.

Despite its increased usage, the scheme is still a long way from reaching its set volume limit of 109k tonnes. Officially, last year’s intervention scheme closed on 31 December 2015 and a new scheme immediately opened on 1 January 2016, with the volume limits reset. Therefore, around 100k tonnes are still available to be used before intervention’s current end date on 30 September 2016.

However, intervention is not usually open at this time of year and volumes entering have increased sharply in recent weeks. The latest information on intervention stock levels can be found on the AHDB Dairy website.